


Les Étoiles Dans Le Ciel Ont Rien Sur Vous

by pickwicklingpapers



Series: Cophine AUs [8]
Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, NASA, NASA AU, alison will one day be head of nasa and woebetide anyone who stands in her way, beth is gr888 at coordinates, helena is probably a crazy astrophysicist somehere
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-17
Updated: 2016-05-17
Packaged: 2018-06-08 22:12:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6875689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pickwicklingpapers/pseuds/pickwicklingpapers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>'we're new at nasa and what do you mean you've never goofed around with a giant 12 million dollar telescope at 3am while finishing calculations' au</p>
            </blockquote>





	Les Étoiles Dans Le Ciel Ont Rien Sur Vous

**Author's Note:**

  * For [23_5](https://archiveofourown.org/users/23_5/gifts).



> SAY YAY YAY YAY
> 
> so i have no idea what the audition process is like at nasa because i work at argos. the closest i have come to space travel is reading the martian. mindy park is bae.

 

Delphine sighed happily, smoothing down her blazer, and checking herself in the mirror. The curls had been tamed, the suit fit like a glove, and there was no errant spinach on her teeth. (This time – her first day at university didn’t bear thinking about). She’d spent so long waiting for this – through school, and then university. Years and years of work experience and volunteering in cold labs and remote telescopes had led her to this – her first day at NASA. She’d spent every half term, every Christmas, every summer holiday furthering her resume in some way. She’d camped out on mountains in Hawaii to get the best possible alignments, she’d calculated and recorded longitude and latitude by hand when all the instruments broke, she’d spent a month with nothing but penguins and ice. Nothing had quite prepared her for this.

Her mother had been the one to show her the stars. They’d sat on the grass above their village, watching the night sky, waiting for a comet. Her father had thought it all nonsense  thought it not suitable for a young lady, not a proper career, but her mother had help her chart the movement of the skies in a small notebook. They’d made telescoped from cardboard tubes and old glasses lenses, laughing when fingerprint smudges had obscured Venus or Mars. Delphine had always been encouraged by her mother, who was pushing without being pushy. The Frenchwoman had wanted the best for her daughter – passion, fire and love, because those were the three things that she valued above all else. Watching her mother die slowly on a hospital bed, so full of pain and anger and chemicals had made Delphine swear to train as a doctor, to work in immunology. To find cures. Her mother had heard this and taken her hand, making her promise never to choose a path that she felt she had to walk over one that she loved. And so Delphine had continued to study, to make notes in the little worn book that was now so old, the planets were beginning to wear away, like memories of her mother.  

The French space program wasn’t the greatest, so she’d come to America for her postgraduate university education. She’d done her time with the CNES – being one of the few undergraduates that they took on as interns – but her ambitions had quickly outgrown the organisation. Besides, what space junkie didn’t want to work for NASA? It was NASA.

The application process had taken months. She’d redrafted her CV at least fifty times before she’d initially applied, and then there’d been the weeks of waiting, the sparse emails, the time in which her work experience was double checked, her statements triple checked, her referrals contacted. She imagined that the communication barrier hadn’t helped; the old man stuck by himself in the Antarctic was incredibly deaf and spoke nothing but French anyway. Then there’d been the interviews themselves – the tests, the problem solving, the logic exams. She wasn’t aiming to go to space, she just wanted to work telescopes. But she’d done it anyway, and waited and waited and waited. Just when it seemed like they’d forgotten her (despite the seventeen different solo and group interviews), she’d got a call. It was down to the last two. They’d thought long and hard. It had been a tough choice, and they were sorry that they’d had to make it.

They wanted her.

She’d even moved to Maryland, which was shocking change from Paris, but so much nicer than the Arctic Circle. She‘d left everything when she’d moved to America – her family, her language, her feeling of security. All she had gained was a doctorate and an impressive amount of debt.

And so it had all led to this. A cold evening in February, and a new start. Taking a deep breath, she pushed open the car door and eased herself out. The GFSC loomed in front of her, the entrance large and imposing. No matter, she thought, pushing down nerves. She would take this place, and make it hers. Give her a few years, and the entire building would know her name. Give her half a decade, and the entirety of NASA would know her. If she worked hard, she could do the world in ten. Delphine Cormier was steel. Delphine Cormier could do this.

The receptionist was lovely and kind, gave her a badge and a map and told her where to go. Delphine’s supervisor was just as nice, if a little absent. Apparently something was threatening to blow up in the outer atmosphere. It may have been the start of the night shift, but space didn’t really care about those sorts of things. After the usual intro package – the hello, how are you, we showed you what you’re doing before, you know all this why am I telling you how to read a computer screen - he pointed her towards the glass doors of the satellite monitor room, and retreated back to his office. She smoothed down her suit again. Time to start with space.

 

* * *

 

Cosima sighed, leaning back in her chair. Stars were great but dull. Nothing ever changed, which was kind of a good thing, but _so boring_.  Scrumpling up a scrap piece of paper, she threw the ball at Scott, who was meticulously checking alignments for the fifteenth time that hour on the next desk over.

“Dude,” she whined, “Leave them. They’re fine. Besides, if we look at a piece of Mars two millimetres away from the patch that e were supposed to look at, no one’s going to care. It’s not like we’re missing anything. This isn’t the fucking x files.”

Scott tutted. “Cosima, you know as well as I do that everything has to be perfect.” He leaned back, spinning to face her. “NASA’s hard pressed for funding and results, and I’m not going to let us be the reason why something fails. Times are tight. NASA can’t afford a setback. There’s a reason why there’s only three of us in this lab at nights. They’d cut us down to one if they could.”

“Three?” Cosima laughed. “Scotty, you know as well as I do that it’s just us. That’s why we have to take these killer night shifts, remember? We had to manually upgrade the coffee machine after it broke from over use the other week.”

“Three,” Scott said. “Three, because a new girl got hired last week.” He picked up a tablet, tapped on it, and handed it to Cosima. “They showed her round when you were sleeping off the night shift. She’s qualified as hell – worked for the CNES, on the Antarctic research telescope, specialises in infrared and uv detection. She starts today. So yeah, three.”

Cosima looked down at one of the most beautiful women that she had ever seen, and then looked up as the same woman, only with straightened hair and a kickass blazer pushed open the door and walked in.

“Excuse-moi, this is the relay room, non?”

French. _Ugh_.

Cosima’s brain short circuited as Scott jumped to his feet and extended a hand enthusiastically. “Yes, hi” he said, pumping the woman’s arm up and down energetically. “We are so glad to have you here, Doctor Cormier. Really, it’s an honour.”

The blonde arched a perfect eyebrow. “Really? I do not think I have done anything to deserve such praise, but I shall endeavour to change that.” She dropped Scott’s handshake and walked towards Cosima. “Delphine,” she said, hand outstretched, “Enchante”.

Cosima smiled. “Enchante.”

 

* * *

 

The rest of the shift passed with little event – Scott and Cosima showed Delphine around the room, pointing out what all the different desks did, which buttons went where, which satellites corresponded to which screens and how to bring up any necessary information. More importantly, thy showed her where the coffee was, where the bathrooms were, and where the good coffee was. As time went on, Delphine relaxed, becoming less frigid, less cold, less nervous. Cosima fell more in love.

It was three in the morning. Mars was quite. Earth was quite. Space seemed to just have given up and gone to sleep, because there wasn’t even a shooting star in the sky. Delphine found herself slumped in a chair next to Cosima, hands curled around her fifth cup of coffee.

“I’ve always loved the stars.” She found herself saying. “They’re beautiful. Just … pinpricks of pure light. What could be greater than that, you know?”

“Yeah,” said Cosima, “I know what you mean. Here – “ she slid her chair forward reaching for the keyboard infront of her. “- this is my favourite star.” She selected an area of space, and zoomed in. “Designation 324B21. Specs show almost pure white light, but with a little bit more purple than the other wavelengths. I don’t know why, but it makes me feel just a little bit melancholy.”

Delphine smiled. “Oui,” she said, “It’s beautiful. But maybe you should point the satellite back where you got it from before somebody looks and doesn’t see what they’re expecting.”

Cosima turned to her and grinned. “Oh come on,” she said, “like you’ve never fucked around with a twelve million dollar satellite whilst no one was watching.”

 

* * *

 

Morning came, and they all took naps in the anteroom whilst the morning shift filed in – Art, Felix, and Beth. Each said hello, and then set about adjusting the trajectories for the day. By the time the afternoon came around, Delphine was back at work, because nothing says first day like pulling two shift almost back to back.

“Hey, Delphine.” Cosima called as she put on her coat and scarf. “Scotty and I are going now but, like, we were going to go out for a drink later if you wanted to come? Like, I know that you’re new to the area and all, but it would be totally awesome if you wanted to come out with us.”

Delphine waved back. “I’d love to” she called “Where is this place?”

Cosima scrawled down some directions, stuffing them into Delphine’s jacket. “Come find us when you’re done.” She said. “First round’s on me!”

Beth smiled as Cosima left, tugging Scott along with her. “Watch yourself” she said, leaning over to Delphine’s workspace. “She’s a handful, that one.”

Delphine spluttered incoherently. Beth just smiled, and continued calmly plotting coordinates.

 

* * *

 

Cosima looked up as the bar door opened and shift, wafting in cold air from the outside. Delphine stood in the corner, hair in perfect curls and a knitted jumper keeping her bundled up from the cold. She raised a hand as Delphine scoured the bar, searching.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

“I thought you weren’t going to show up – I thought I’d be left her alone, waiting at this bar forever as I slowly turned to dust. “

Delphine laughed, a deep chuckle that made Cosima smile. “I would never leave you,” she said, looking around. “Where is Scott?”

“Oh,” said Cosima, draining her glass and putting it down on the bar with a grin. “Denise had an asthma attack, so he has to go home.”

“Merde, is she all right? Should w-“

Cosima grinned at Delphine’s worry. “Denise is his cat.” She chuckle at the look on the blonde’s face. “I know, I know. But he’s an absolute sucker for that animal. Trust me, if he gets a girlfriend, she’s going to have to be okay with coming second to the cat.”

Delphine laughed. “I can picture it.” She said. “I’m French – we practically invented crazy cat ladies. Scott would fit in marvellously.”

“And what about you?” said Cosima, ordering drinks for the both of them.

“Me?”

“Do you have any cats?”

Delphine accepted the drink from the barman and took a sip. “No,” she said, placing it down. “I used to have a cat named Chat, but I couldn’t take her to university with me. She lives with my father now.”

“Uh huh,” Cosima nodded. “A cat named Cat. I expected nothing less.” She sipped her drink and the turned to Delphine. “And what about cute girlfriends?” she asked. “Got one of those?”

“Non” She replied, removing Cosima’s glasses and placing them on the bar. “But I wouldn’t mind one.”

The kiss was short and sweet and a thousand clichés that only now were fully understood. It tasted like cinnamon and rum and vodka. It tasted like sugar and lime. It tasted like the night’s sky looks when viewed through false colour infra red. In short, it was the most perfect moment of Cosima’s life, and she thanked whatever deity would listen to her that Scott’s cat was spoiled rotten.

Cosima pulled back, Delphine’s head in her hands, fingers tangled with the golden ringlets.

“Babe,” she said. “Trust me. The stars have nothing on you.”

 

 

* * *

 

For their first anniversary, Delphine gets Cosima a framed photograph. It’s 324B21, in all its purple glory.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> if anyone from malta is reading this i would like to personally say thank you for those twelve points


End file.
